ceous. As soon as the winter approaches, they are seen dispersed along the sea-shore, and ascending up the mouths of fresh water rivers, carrying destruction to all the finny tribe. They are most remarkably voracious, and have a most sudden digestion. Their appetite is for ever craving, and never satisfied. This gnawing sensation may probably be increased by the great quantity of small worms that fill their intestines, and which their unceasing gluttony contributes to engender.

Thus formed with grossest appetites, this unclean bird has the most rank and disagreeable smell, and is more fetid than even carrion, when in its most healthful state. Its form, says an ingenious modern, is disagreeable; its voice is hoarse and croaking; and all its qualities obscene. No wonder then that Milton should make Satan personate this bird, when he sent him upon the basest purposes, to survey with pain the beauties of Paradise, and to sit devising death on the tree of life.* It has been remarked, however, of our poet, that the making a water fowl perch upon a tree, implied no great acquaintance with the history of nature. In vindication of Milton, Aristotle expressly says, that the cormorant is the only water fowl that sits on trees. We have already seen the pelican of this number; and the cormorant's toes seem as fit for perching upon trees as for swimming; so that our epic bard seems to have been as deeply versed in natural history as in criticism.

Indeed, this bird seems to be of a multiform nature, and wherever fish are to be found, watches their migrations. It is seen as well by land as sea; it fishes in fresh water lakes, as well as in the depths of the ocean; it builds in the cliffs of rocks, as well as on trees; and preys not only in the day-time, but by night.

* Vide Pennant's Zoology, p. 477.

Its indefatigable nature, and its great power in catching fish, were probably the motives that induced some nations to breed this bird up tame, for the purposes of fishing; and Willoughby assures us it was once used in England for that purpose. The description of their manner of fishing is thus delivered by Faber: "When they carry them out of the rooms where they are kept to the fish-pools, they hoodwink them, that they may not be frighted by the way. When they are come to the rivers, they take off their hoods; and having tied a leather thong round the lower part of their necks, that they may not swallow down the fish they catch, they throw them into the river. They presently dive under water, and there, for a long time, with wonderful swiftness, pursue the fish; and when they have caught them, rise to the top of the water, and pressing the fish lightly with their bills, swallow them, till each bird hath, after this manner, devoured five or six fishes. Then their keepers call them to the fist, to which they readily fly; and, one after another, vomit up all their fish, a little bruised with the first nip given in catching them. When they have done fishing, setting the birds on some high place, they loose the string from their necks, leaving the passage to the stomach free and open; and, for their reward, they throw them part of their prey; to each, one or two fishes, which they will catch most dexterously as they are falling in the air."

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At present, the cormorant is trained up in every part of China for the same purpose, where there are many lakes and canals. "To this end," says Le Compte, they are educated as men rear up spaniels or hawks; and one man can easily manage a hundred. The fisher carries them out into the lake, perched on the gunnel of his boat, where they continue tranquil, and expecting his orders with pa

tience. When arrived at the proper place, at the first signal given each flies a different way, to fulfil the task assigned it. It is very pleasant, on this occasion, to behold with what sagacity they portion out the lake or the canal where they are upon duty. They hunt about, they plunge, they rise a hundred times to the surface, until they have at last found their prey. They then seize it with their beak by the middle, and carry it without fail to their master. When the fish is too large, they then give each other mutual assistance; one seizes it by the head, the other by the tail, and in this manner carry it to the boat together. There the boatman stretches out one of his long oars, on which they perch, and being delivered of their burden, they fly off to pursue their sport. When they are wearied, he lets them rest for a while; but they are never fed till their work is over. In this manner they supply a very plentiful table; but still their natural gluttony cannot be reclaimed even by education. They have always, while they fish, the same string fastened round their throats, to prevent them from devouring their prey, as otherwise they would at once satiate themselves, and discontinue their pursuit the moment they had filled their bellies."

As for the rest, the cormorant is the best fisher of all birds; and though fat and heavy with the quantity it devours, is nevertheless generally upon the wing. The great activity with which it pursues, and from a vast height drops down to dive after its prey, offers one of the most amusing spectacles to those who stand upon a cliff on the shore. This large bird is seldom seen in the air, but where there are fish below; but then they must be near the surface before it will venture to souse upon them. If they are at a depth beyond what the impetus of its flight makes the cormorant capable of diving to, they certainly escape

him; for this bird cannot move so fast under water, as the fish can swim. It seldom, however, makes an unsuccessful dip, and is often seen rising heavily, with a fish larger than it can readily devour. It sometimes also happens, that the cormorant has caught the fish by the tail, and consequently the fins prevent its being easily swallowed in that position. In this case, the bird is seen to toss its prey above its head, and very dexterously to catch it, when descending, by the proper end, and so swallow it with

ease.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE GANNET, OR SOLAND GOOSE.

THE Gannet is of the size of a tame goose, but its wings much longer, being six feet over. The bill is six inches long, straight almost to the point, where it inclines down, and the sides are irregularly jagged, that it may hold its prey with greater security. It differs from the cormorant in size, being larger; and its colour, which is chiefly white; and by its having no nostrils, but in their place a long furrow, that reaches almost to the end of the bill. From the corner of the mouth is a narrow slip of black bare skin, that extends to the hind part of the head; beneath the skin is another, that like the pouch of the pelican, is dilatable, and of size sufficient to contain five or six entire herrings, which in the breeding season it carries at once to its mate or its young.

These birds, which subsist entirely upon fish, chiefly resort to those uninhabited islands where their food is found in plenty, and men seldom come to disturb them. The islands to the north of Scotland, the

Skelig Islands off the coasts of Kerry in Ireland, and those that lie in the North Sea off Norway, abound with them. But it is on the Bass Island, in the Firth of Edinburgh, where they are seen in the greatest abundance. "There is a small island," says the celebrated Harvey, "called the Bass, not more than a mile in circumference. The surface is almost wholly covered during the months of May and June with their nests, their eggs, and young It is scarcely possible to walk without treading on them: the flocks of birds upon the wing are so numerous as to darken the air like a cloud; and their noise is such, that one cannot, without difficulty, be heard by the person next to him. When one looks down upon the sea from the precipice, its whole surface seems covered with infinite numbers of birds of different kinds, swimming and pursuing their prey. If, in sailing round the island, one surveys its hanging cliffs, in every crag or fissure of the broken rocks may be seen innumerable birds, of various sorts and sizes, more than the stars of heaven when viewed in a serene night. If they are viewed at a distance, either receding, or in their approach to the island, they seem like one vast swarm of bees."

They are not less frequent upon the rocks of St. Kilda. Martin assures us, that the inhabitants of that small island consume annually near twenty-three thousand young birds of this species, beside an amazing quantity of their eggs. On these they principally subsist throughout the year; and, from the number of these visitants, make an estimate of their plenty for the season. They preserve both the eggs and fowls in small pyramidal stone buildings, covering them with turf ashes, to prevent the evaporation of their moisture.

The gannet is a bird of passage. In winter, it seeks the more southern coasts of Cornwall, hover